Topic Title

Hello all,
I recently purchased a Dell E196FP 19" Inch Flat Panel LCD Monitor E193FP. I have plugged this into and booted up my laptop which has Windows XP. I can't get the screen to display correctly on my dell monitor. I checked the display properties dialogue box and there is a drop down menu which shows both my laptop monitor and dell monitor as Mobility monitor #1 & #2 respectively. It dosen't list the name or model of the monitor. My laptop displays as a wide screen format (more rectangular shaped screen) which has a different resolution then what I'm trying to display my dell flatscreen at. I want the dell to be at 1280x1074. I have these settings saved in the properties box for each monitor but the dell shows the screen being cropped off and the icons are way bigger than they should be. I checked the monitor screen adjustments but that wasn't it. My laptop says the driver being used is the correct one. I was thinking I still may need to find the dell driver and install it anyway. I'm not exactly sure how to install the driver when my laptop dosen't prompt me to.

Any help would be appreciated,

Sincerely,

Giuseppe Barberio

Just making sure first...

You can set the resolution and refresh rates for both monitor seperatly. In the properties dialog, select Monitor #1 and make your changes, then select monitor 2 and make your changes.

A problem I had ran into was the refresh rates, but that was with a toshiba laptop and a dell monitor.

Thanks Greg,
I have set the display resolution for my lap top & monitor separtely. The monitor does not display at the resolution I set and I also noticed that both my laptop & monitor use the same "MOBILITY M10" monitor disply. I don't seem to have an option to select a different display in the drop down menu for monitor #2 (Dell monitor). This is in the display properties dialogue box under settings tab.

I can't tell you how anoying this is and I know its probably something real simple. Very frustrated.

Still looking for help.

Sincerely,

Giuseppe Barberio

Hi Giuseppe,

Did the Dell monitor come with a CD-ROM? If so, then you can Update the driver for in from the Device Manager. If not, then search te Dell site for the INF file and use that to update the monitor driver.

Neil,
Thanks for the input and yes the Monitor did come with a CD-Rom. I installed the driver and the driver shows up under the Sytems Properties dialogue box under Hardware Tab. I click on device manager and there is a tree of small icons with a icon of a monitor that is noted as Display Adapter. There is only one adapter listed when I expand it. The adapter is Mobility M10. Further down the tree is another icon noted as monitors. When I expand that the Dell driver shows up along with default monitor & plug & play.
I think I need the Dell to show up as one of the Display Adapters.

I'll have to keep on it. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

Thanks all,

Giuseppe

Hello Giuseppe,

No, there is only one display Adaptor; and it works with the two monitors. The issue is, that the ATi Mobility M10 needs to have a "mode" that supports different resolutions on each monitor, and those resolutions need to be the ideal resolution for that monitor.

You really should always run an LCD monitor at it's maximum (aka native) resolution; otherwise it will look much worse. If the icons/text are too small, then you should use the Appearance tab on the Display Properties dialog, to increase the size of those things.

The clues that I need to know about are:

Does the "Start" bar at the bottom of the screen extend across both monitors, or is it only on the "primary" monitor?

What are the resolutions of each of the monitors?

Which monitor is designated at the "primary" monitor?

The other steps to try, is to update the ATi video card driver -- a newer driver may well support more resolutions and/or the "HydraVision" may work in more "modes" than the current version does.

Hi Neil,

1) Both my Dell monitor & Laptop have the start bar on it.

2) On my Dell Flatscreen, the start bar is beyond the viewable screen area along the bottom of the screen. Also the right side of my sceen is cropped off.

3) The laptop is my primary screen which I will send you later what I have that resolution set at. Don't recall of the top of my head and I'm at work right now.

4) My Dell Flatscreen is at 1280x1074.

Thanks again for all your input

Giuseppe

Hello Giuseppe,

1) Both my Dell monitor & Laptop have the start bar on it.

2) On my Dell Flatscreen, the start bar is beyond the viewable screen area along the bottom of the screen. Also the right side of my sceen is cropped off.

3) The laptop is my primary screen which I will send you later what I have that resolution set at. Don't recall of the top of my head and I'm at work right now.

4) My Dell Flatscreen is at 1280x1074.

Ah, that means that the desktop is "stretched" across both monitors, and that the two monitors are being used to display a single (summed) resolution. This is a different mode than what you need, since it forces one monitor or the other to display something other than it's native resolution.

You need to look and see if there is an independent mode, that would allow each monitor to display it's native resolution. The Start bar would only appear on the primary monitor, and the top edges of each monitor would "align" on the desktop, while the bottom edges would not necessarily align. If this is not possible, then you need to look for a new video driver that may work this way; or you may not be able to get it working... What Windows are you using?

Neil,
Just a little more info.

1) My laptop has a wide screen display. Gateway 505XL. The resolution I have it set at is 1280x800.

2) I am running windows XP

Any further thoughts on how I can properly display 2-different resolutions.

I also wrote some earlier posts which has a little more info. If you scroll up you will see my earlier posts which may have more clues.

Thanks again Neil,

Giuseppe

Neil,

Thank you for all the help. I was able to take all your input and make the use of a second monitor work with my Laptop.

Thank you again,

Giuseppe